On Pakistan.

The current situation in Pakistan is far from stable. Along with the growing threat from the Taliban and a paralyzed economy that led to a strong increase in unemployment and poverty, people of Pakistan have a very weak government. It is true that the state of the country was not at its best when Asif Ali Zardari was elected as a president in 2008, and the global financial crisis that hit hard most of the countries around the world, did have a strong impact on their economic instability. However the Taliban threat has posed another question for Zardari, is he strong enough to handle this situation as a whole? He does not seem to have enough power to have control over Pakistan. When it came to dealing with the Taliban threat to take over the Swat province, the government of Pakistan made a decision to negotiate. Under the cease-fire agreement, the Taliban put down their arms, but were allowed to apply their extremist version of the Islamic law (closing girl's schools, banning music etc.) which is very dangerous. The people of Swat province were left to live in constant fear under the rule of the Taliban. It did not take too long for the government of Pakistan to realize that the terms of negotiation are not being met by the Taliban, which led it to break the agreement and start fighting.
Zardari does not seem to have an idea of what to do whether it is dealing with terrorist threats, or making reforms to try to stabilize the economic situation, unlike the ideology of his wife Benazir Bhutto, who was killed while campaigning for the presidency in December 2007. Even though, it is well known that both of them have had a record of corruption charges, especially when Benazir was serving as prime minister and her husband was working beside her, approving foreign investments. That's when it's been said, they made a lot of money on the deals that were approved. In fact, Zardari's nickname is "Mister 10 percent", which describes the fees they were getting out of those deals.
Even though both of them were accused in the shadowy past, Benazir had strong ideas, unlike Zardari. Benazir was fighting for democracy and strongly believed that the democracy is not the enemy of Islam. She had a goal, to bring prosperity to the Pakistani nation. The reforms should be made in order to raise the quality of education which will help in the development and modernization of technology, medicine, and all of which play an important role in the state of the economy. The military should no longer interfere in matter of government; otherwise their ideologies that have prevented the development of Pakistan all these years, will never stop dominating the politics of Pakistan. Benazir was passionate about her ideas and knew what needs to be done. When it comes to the political life of this couple, Zardari was always just a shadow of Benazir, not strong enough. But also he did not share all of her views.
While Zardari's position towards economic development is unclear, people of Pakistan, which has a population of over 165 million, continue to suffer. Some of the major problems are: high unemployment rates and poverty that is very high Pakistan. Statistics show that one third of the population lives below the poverty line and another twenty- one percent is just slightly above it. Pakistan is spending less that 2 percent of its GDP for education, which shows why they suffer from the poor quality of education that has led them to the decline in technology. Pakistan needs modernization, but since through out history, the military ruled the country and they still play an important role in politics, modernization has been ignored.
The military has influenced and continues to influence the politics of Pakistan, directly or indirectly. It has been seen in the past that the military was linked with Islamists and those Islamists were supported by the government, especially at the time when General Zia was in power. Islamists and 'Jihad' were praised. Even though the government says that no radical islamists are drafted into the military army, we can not ignore the fact that it was not that long ago (1976-1988 - years in office of General Zia) that drafting Islamists was more than acceptable. All of these facts can not be ignored when it comes to dealing with extremists today. The government of Pakistan should have more answers on how to fight them. This is a question that can not be answered anywhere but in Pakistan. It's an internal problem and it involves religion, culture, traditions, believes and when it comes to the tactics on how to proceed and what shall be done next, it should come from the government of Pakistan.
Islam though will continue to play a significant role when it comes to politics and it does not matter who is or will be in power. It is the degree of the radicalism that will differ, while, on the other hand, a secular government could change the lives of Pakistani people for a better future.
It seems that Pakistan has a chance for democracy to grow strong and we can see that that's what people want, looking back at the support they gave to Benazir and looking back at the election results in 2008. Pakistan has a strong potential for economic growth, but it will take time and maybe even entire generation or two to abolish certain principles that their grandfathers and great -great grandfathers passed on to them. Maybe they can see one day that a secular government is not only a way to true democracy but it is also a way to change their lives and the lives of their children for a better future.